Doug Beghtel/The OregonianPark Avenue West covers a key downtown block between two light-rail train tracks, behind Nordstrom and next to Director Park. TMT Development says it will resume construction in two years.

The developers behind Portland’s long-stalled Park Avenue West Tower says construction is set to begin again in late 2013.

The 27-story tower project halted in April 2009, when developer Tom Moyer, who had been financing the project -- then pegged at $170 million -- himself to that point, couldn't secure a construction loan. It left a pit in the middle of downtown Portland, just a block from Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Moyer’s company, TMT Development, said Monday it plans to restart construction in two years, with completion scheduled for 2015. The date is tied to potential tenants whose leases elsewhere are up in 2015 and 2016, TMT President Vanessa Sturgeon said.

“We still strongly believe that the current design of the building is right for downtown Portland,” Sturgeon said in a news release. “We also are confident in the interest expressed by potential tenants whose leases will be turning in 2015 and 2016, when the project is slated for completion.”

Sturgeon said TMT had a construction loan lined up, but would continue to shop for the best financing over the next two years.

After construction halted, the law firm Stoel Rives, a key tenant that planned to lease 150,000 square feet on 11 floors, pulled out and renewed its existing lease.